CHANGES IN VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING AND THE PROCESS OF CREATING NASCENT FIRM VALUE. Stephen Glenn Martin

Transcription

1 CHANGES IN VENTURE CAPITAL FUNDING AND THE PROCESS OF CREATING NASCENT FIRM VALUE by Stephen Glenn Martin A dissertation submitted to the faculty of The University of North Carolina at Charlotte in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Charlotte 2014 Approved by: Dr. Tao-Hsien Dolly King Dr. Steven P. Clark Dr. W. Scott Frame Dr. Dmitry A. Shapiro

2 2014 Stephen Glenn Martin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii

3 ABSTRACT iii STEPHEN GLENN MARTIN. Changes in venture capital funding and the process of creating nascent firm value (Under the direction of DR.TAO-HSIEN DOLLY KING) In Chapter 1, I examine the role of venture capital syndication in a firms ability to efficiently time the initial public offering market, as well as the benefits of syndication to the issuing firms and venture capitalists. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the level of venture capital syndication and IPO market timing. I also find a positive relationship between venture capital syndication and initial returns, as well as the extent to which an offering prices above the midpoint of the initial filing range. Finally, the results indicate that there is a positive, relationship between venture capital syndication and the initial IPO filing range. In Chapter 2, I examine the effects of seed accelerator program participation on subsequent follow-on funding. I find that seed accelerator participation is significantly related to subsequent follow-on funding, after controlling for firm characteristics as well as macro-level variables. The results indicate that firms that participate in an accelerator program are more likely to receive follow-on funding in the three years that follow their initial seed funding. I also find that the follow-on funding of accelerated firms exhibits favorable characteristics, as compared to firms that do not participate in such a program. Chapter 3 studies the recent initial public offering trends in the market for real estate investment trusts, in an effort to determine if there is support for the primary theories related to the decline in initial public offerings. The results support the Economies of Scope Theory, and are inconsistent with the Regulatory Overreach Theory, with respect to small-firm real estate investment trust initial public offerings. The results also provide limited support for the Regulatory Overreach Theory, with respect to the impact of regulations on the volume of largefirm real estate investment trust initial public offerings.

4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv I would like to thank my family for their support and understanding over the past five years. I also thank Dr. Tao-Hsien Dolly King for her guidance and encouragement. I would also like to thank Dr. Steven P. Clark, W. Scott Frame, and Dmitry A. Shapiro for their help and useful comments.

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES vii ix CHAPTER 1: THE ROLE OF VENTURE CAPITAL SYNDICATION 1 IN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING MARKET TIMING AND PRICING 1.1 Introduction Literature Review IPO Market Timing Venture Capital Syndication Data and Sample Selection Empirical Analysis Descriptive Statistics of Initial Public Offerings and 14 Venture Capital Firms Impact of Venture Capital Syndication on IPO Market Timing Impact of Syndication on IPO Pricing Conclusion 40 CHAPTER 2: SEED ACCELERATORS: A NEW APPROACH TO 42 FIRM VALUE CREATION 2.1 Introduction Literature Review and Hypotheses Venture Capital s Role in Growing Young Companies Seed Accelerator Programs Seed Accelerator Programs as a New Path of 54 Venture Capital Funding

6 2.3 Data and Sample Selection Methodology and Empirical Results Seed Accelerator Program Impact on Follow-on Funding The Relationship Between Seed Accelerator Program 70 Participation and Follow-on Funding Characteristics of Seed Accelerator Program Participant 79 Follow-on Funding Total Amount of Follow-on Funding Amount of Individual Follow-on Funding Rounds Number of Follow-on Funding Rounds Time Between Follow-on Funding Rounds Causes of Follow-on Funding Characteristics Conclusion 90 CHAPTER 3: THE PRECIPITOUS DECLINE OF IPOs: EVIDENCE FROM 92 THE MARKET FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS 3.1 Introduction Literature Review Data and Sample Selection Empirical Analysis The Decline in RIET Initial Public Offerings Explaining the Decline in IPOs: Regulatory Overreach 117 and Economies of Scope 3.5 Conclusion 135 REFERENCES 137 APPENDIX: TABLES 142 vi

7 LIST OF TABLES vii TABLE 1: Frequency distribution of IPO sample by country 15 TABLE 2: Frequency distribution of U.S. IPOs by year 16 TABLE 3: Frequency distribution of U.S. sample IPOs by industry 18 TABLE 4: Descriptive statistics for sample of IPOs 19 TABLE 5: Descriptive statistics for venture capital firms 21 TABLE 6: Regressions of market hotness on venture capital syndication 26 and control variables TABLE 7: Regressions of initial return on venture capital syndication 32 and control variables TABLE 8: Regressions of pre-ipo gain on venture capital syndication 35 and control variables TABLE 9: Regressions of initial IPO price range on venture capital 38 syndication and control variables TABLE 10: Frequency distribution of seed accelerator programs 62 by country TABLE 11: Frequency distribution of accelerator-participating firms 63 by country TABLE 12: Descriptive statistics related to matched seed 65 accelerator-participating firms TABLE 13: Base regressions of follow-on funding on 74 accelerator participation with all firms in sample TABLE 14: Regressions of follow-on funding on accelerator 78 participation with matched sample of firms TABLE 15: Regressions of follow-on funding characteristics on 83 accelerator participation with matched data TABLE 16: Regressions of follow-on funding characteristics on 87 accelerator participation with matched data

8 viii TABLE 17: U.S. real estate investment trust initial public offerings by year 109 TABLE 18: U.S. real estate investment trust initial public offerings dollar 110 volume by year TABLE 19: U.S. real estate investment trust mergers by year 113 TABLE 20: U.S. real estate investment trust summary statistics related 115 to profitability of firm over time TABLE 21: Quarterly time-series regressions of number of small-firm 124 REIT IPOs TABLE 22: Quarterly time-series regressions of volume of small-firm 128 REIT IPOs TABLE 23: Quarterly time-series regressions of number of large-firm 131 REIT IPOs TABLE 24: Quarterly time-series regressions of volume of large-firm 133 REIT IPOs TABLE A: Venture capital commitments index 142 TABLE B: Venture capital investments index 144

9 LIST OF FIGURES ix FIGURE 1: Number of U.S. initial public offerings of companies based 98 on deal size, FIGURE 2: Percentage of U.S. initial public offerings compared to U.S. 104 mergers & acquisitions,

10 CHAPTER 1: THE ROLE OF VENTURE CAPITAL SYNDICATION IN INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING MARKET TIMING AND PRICING 1.1 Introduction The market timing of initial public offerings (IPOs) has been a well-documented phenomenon since it was first investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1963, and Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) established the initial foundation for the extant literature on the topic. There is a recognized tendency for IPOs to be clustered around certain time periods. These clusters, or waves, of higher-than-average IPO activity, often termed Hot Issue Markets, create pronounced cycles in the number of initial public offerings per month and year, as well as impact initial returns of the clustered offerings (Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1988, 1994) and Lowery and Schwert (2002)). A long line of research has emerged to analyze these IPO waves. While the literature has not dispositively explained the clustering of new equity issues, a number of theories have been presented as to the phenomenon s existence and causes. The seminal paper Lerner (1994b) provides support for the proposition that firms seek to issue initial public stock when equity values are high, and further, that venture capital (VC) firms are particularly talented at this market timing. More recently, several models have attempted to explain IPO market timing by focusing on an information spillover hypothesis, in which initial pioneer firms issue public equity, which then triggers a wave of

11 2 subsequent follower firms going public. According to the theory, the overall result is observable waves of IPOs (Lowery and Schwert (2002)). Another branch of literature examines a relatively new possible explanation for IPO waves. Schultz (1993), for example, argues that more firms issue initial equity when stock prices increase. While this behavior is unrelated to managers ability to predict future returns, the author suggests that the result is the observed long-run underperformance of IPOs. Since the theory is not based on an issuer s ability to time the IPO market, and rather relies solely on the observation of high market prices, it is referred to as Pseudo Market Timing. Other notable research has examined the consequences of market timing with an eye towards explaining its causes. (See, for example, Alti (2005, 2006)). While the numerous studies approach IPO market timing from different perspectives, and a distinct lack of theoretical consensus persists, there is considerable overlap in theories. Although there is vast support for the proposition that firms time the market, as well as the fact that market timing can benefit the issuing company and its initial investors (Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975), Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1988, 1994), and Lerner (1994b)), an unexplored aspect of the IPO market-timing phenomenon is the extent to which venture capital syndication, which has become an accepted normal (Lerner (1994a)), affects market timing. This gap in the literature provides an opportunity for fruitful research. Since there is support for the theory that firms time the market with their equity offerings, and venture capitalists play a significant role in the managerial decision making process of going public (Keuschnigg (2004), Barry, et al. (1990), and Gompers (1995)), it poses a fundamental question: To what extent does venture capital

12 3 syndication affect a firm s ability to efficiently time the IPO market? It is this question that the analysis herein undertakes to answer. To my knowledge no literature has addressed this issue. Based on a sample of 3,014 initial public offerings, I examine the role of venture capital syndication in the firms ability to efficiently time the IPO market, as well as the benefits of syndication to the issuing firms and venture capitalists. In studying the affects of syndication on IPO market timing and pricing, this paper addresses two interlinked issues. First, I analyze the impact of the level of venture capital syndication on the market timing of the IPOs during the sample period. My findings indicate that there is a positive relation between the level of VC syndication and IPO market timing. I find that, on average, the syndication of an IPO leads to the IPO going public during a month in which the average monthly return is 26%, compared to 20% for non-syndicated firms. The average for all IPOs is 24%. Further, using an the monthly percentage of IPOs that priced above the midpoint of their original filing range as an alternative measure of market hotness, I find that, on average, syndicated firms go public during periods in which the average monthly percentage of IPOs that price above the midpoint of their range is 47%. This is compared to 44% for non-syndicated IPOs. The average across the entire sample is 46%. To further analyze the relation between venture capital syndication and IPO market timing, I use multivariate regression based on a number of specifications. I find that there is a significant, positive relationship between whether a firm is syndicated by more than one venture capitalist and both measures of market timing. Additionally, I find that there is also a significant, positive relation between the level of VC syndication and

13 4 each measure of market timing. All of the models suggest that the syndication of venture capital increases a firm s ability to time the IPO market, and that the level of such syndication contributes positively to this ability. As a second analysis of this study, I examine the benefits of syndication and efficient IPO market timing, in terms of the firm, as well as the primary and secondary markets. Specifically, I examine the effects of VC syndication on initial returns, pre-ipo gain, and initial IPO price range. The literature has suggested a number of benefits to venture capitalists from the deliberate underpricing of equity offerings. (Lerner (1994b)). I find a positive, and significant, relation between venture capital syndication and initial returns. The result holds when testing only the U.S. IPOs, as well as those of countries with 10 or more IPOs. Both the presence of a VC syndicate, in addition to the level of such syndication, increase the initial returns related to the offering. I also find a significant, positive relationship between VC syndication and the extent to which an offering ultimately prices above the midpoint of the initial filing range. Finally, the result indicate that there is a positive, significant, relationship between syndication and the initial filing range itself. This paper makes the following contributions to the literature. First, I extend the IPO market timing research by examining the effect of venture capital syndication on a firm s ability to efficiently time the new equity market. This is a topic that, to my knowledge, has not been addressed in the literature previously. I empirically examine the relation between VC syndication and a number of measures of market timing. Again, I establish a strong, and statistically significant link between them. This relationship is confirmed in a number of robustness tests, as well as controlling for other variables that

14 5 are commonly thought to play a role in initial public offering dynamics. Second, in addition to helping fill the literary gap surrounding IPO market timing, particularly with respect to syndicated venture capital-backed firms, this study contributes to the literature by examining the benefits of such market timing to issuers, and venture capitalists. In particular, I find that syndicated firms enjoy higher initial returns. A third contribution this work makes to the extant literature is related to venture capital syndication itself. There have been a number of theories advanced as to why venture capital firms choose to syndicate their investments. Most of these theories, however, are based on operational and monitoring benefits to the venture capital firms. For example, Lerner (1994a) suggests that syndication of investments may lead to better decision making when choosing which firms to invest in, contribute to desirable benefits in the structure of the firm s capital, and that venture capital firms may engage in windrow dressing similar to that which has been documented in pension funds (Lakonishok, Shleifer, Thaler, and Vishny (1991)). This study contributes to the literature by proposing IPO market timing and pricing as additional benefits of VC syndication. To my knowledge, no other paper has previously proposed such syndication benefits. This paper is structured as follows. Section 1.2 reviews the literature on IPO market timing and venture capital syndication. Section 1.3 describes the data sources and sample, and identifies the characteristics of the IPOs and venture capital firms in the study. Section 1.4 provides the empirical analysis and results of the research. Section 1.5 includes concluding remarks.

15 1.2 Literature Review IPO Market Timing The market timing of initial public offerings by issuers has been a persistent question since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) first studied the apparent phenomenon in Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) first provided the foundation in the literature for what has been characterized as the hot issues market. In the seminal paper, a hot market is defined as a month in which the average first-day return is above the median month s average first-day return. Initial return is traditionally measured from the offer price to the closing market price (Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) and Ritter (2011)). This first-day return is also referred to as IPO underpricing. While other measures have been used, most revolving around volume (Ibbotson, Sindlelar, and Ritter (1994)), monthly average first-day returns, as outlined in Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975), is still followed as the standard measure of market timing. Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) document the hot issue market phenomenon while focusing primarily on the predictability of first month new issue premia. A significant positive relation between initial returns and future IPO volume, and the resulting clustering or waves of IPOs, has also been well-established in a broad range of subsequent studies from biotechnology firms (Lerner 1994b) to research analyzing the general market for IPOs (Lowry and Schwert (2002)), to name just a few. This long line of literature, and the established observations that an increased number of companies go public after observing the greatest amount of underpricing, causing clustering of IPOs in waves, has presented a puzzle for 40 years. Conventional logic would suggest that firms would prefer to go public when initial returns are the lowest (Lowry and Schwert (2002)).

16 7 Although the companion puzzles of hot issue market waves, and the apparent desire on the part of issuing firms to go public when initial returns in the market are highest, remain at least partially unexplained, they have spawned a number of interesting theories attempting to account for the phenomena. A number of notable studies highlight the primary theories. As mentioned above, Lerner (1994b) studies biotechnology firms in an attempt to explain IPO waves. He finds that the companies in the sample went public when equity valuations were high, and conversely used private financing when values where low. The research further documents that seasoned venture capitalists appeared to be particularly proficient at taking companies public near market peaks. The author further provides explanations for the desire on the part of issuing firms to achieve large initial returns in their equity offerings. The paper suggests that issuing initial public equity when valuations are high minimizes the dilution of the value of ownership interests in the firms retained by the founders and venture capitalists. As a second suggested rationale for the findings, Lerner (1994b) argues that the deliberate underpricing of initial equity offerings leaves a good taste with investors. This theory has been advanced in a number of studies as a rationale to explain why both venture capital firms and underwriters desire larger initial returns. The theory argues that venture capitalists must repeatedly return to the public equity market with the stock of portfolio firms. Therefore, high historical initial returns can help them ensure that they have a good reputation with offerings (Lerner (1994b)). Additional notable research related to IPO market timing has focused on its affects on issuing firms. Baker and Wurgler (2002) suggests that market timing has an

17 8 impact on capital structure. Specifically, the paper argues that an issuing firm s capital structure is the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Alti (2006) also examines the impact of market timing on capital structure. The paper reports that hot issue market firms issue substantially more equity, and lower their leverage ratios by more than cold-market firms. According to their findings, immediately after going public, hot market firms increase their leverage ratios, by issuing more debt, than cold market firms. The paper finds, however, that the effect of market timing on leverage disappears within two years of the IPO. In a broader context, literature has studied the implications of IPO waves on the equity markets in general. For example, Persons and Warther (1997) and Stoughton, Wong, and Zechner (2001) both suggest that IPO waves are not inconsistent with market efficiency, based on the rational information at the time of the IPO and information effects, respectively. Building on the idea that IPOs convey information to managers of future offerings, more recent research has focused on information spillovers to explain hot issue markets. Both Lowry and Schwert (2002) and Benveniste, Ljungqvist, Wilhelm, and Yu (2003) present evidence of an information spillover effect in IPOs. Each paper finds that IPO volume is highly sensitive to the outcomes of other recent initial public offerings. Lowry and Schwert (2002) additionally presents a theory that suggests that IPO cycles and high initial returns can be explained with a model whereby information learned during the IPO registration period impacts future issuing firms decisions to go public. They posit that initial returns of recent IPOs contain information on the market s valuation of future IPOs, which managers then act on in determining when to undertake an IPO.

18 9 Alti (2005) also studies information as a focal point in initial public offering timing. The paper develops a model which is an extension of the information spillover line of research. The author s theory suggests that, since offering prices are set based on investors indications of interest, the outcome of an IPO reflects information that was previously private. The model begins with a set of pioneer firms going public. After observing the outcomes of those IPOs, follower firms choose to either go public or wait to issue equity. Under this information spillover theory, Alti (2005) argues that IPO market valuations, rather than the issuing firms immediate financing needs, drive the decision to go public. In line with the information theory of market timing, Baker and Wurgler (2002), also find that firms issue relatively more equity than debt just before periods of low market returns. Despite the wide array of literature focused on IPO market timing, the topic is surprisingly unsettled. Numerous theories exist as to both why IPO waves occur and the impact they have on issuing firms and the equity markets. This fact reflects the overwhelming presence of a multitude of influences on the initial public offering process, and the reality that these factors often conflict with one another Venture Capital Syndication Although investment syndication by venture capital firms has existed for a number of decades, Lerner (1994a) provides the foundational basis for literature on the topic. The seminal paper provides three possible rationales for the syndication of venture capital investments. First, the paper suggest that VC syndication may lead to better decisions as to which firms to invest in. As a second justification for syndication, the paper cites the theory found in Admati and Pfleiderer (1994) that syndication helps

19 10 overcome information asymmetries between investors. Finally, Lerner (1994a) argues that a third explanation for venture capital syndication is that it allows venture capitalists to window dress in a similar fashion to the practice of pension companies, which have been found to buy into firms so they can represent themselves as investors in the companies in their marketing materials. (Lakonishok, Shleifer, Thaler, and Vishny (1991)). Other theories for syndication have also been suggested. For example, Locket and Wright (2001) used data from the UK to examine a diversification motive as a basis for venture capital syndication. Brander, Amit, and Antweiler (2002) also present two primary rationales for venture capital syndication. The first, called the second-opinion hypothesis, like Lerner (1994a), argues that syndicating venture capital investments provides an informed second-opinion related to portfolio firms. The second theory, referred to as the value-added hypothesis, suggests that additional VCs provide complimentary management skills to the syndicate. Their findings, based on Canadian data, support the value-added theory. Specifically, they support this conclusion with the finding that syndicated investments have higher returns. Casamatta and Haritchabalet (2007), however, suggests that the second-opinion hypothesis is the driving force for VC syndication. While Hochberg, Ljungqvist, and Lu (2007) find that VC firms that are better networked experience significantly better fund performance. While numerous studies have analyzed venture capital syndication, the literature is surprisingly lacking related to the impact of syndication on a firms ability to time the IPO market. To my knowledge no study has examined this issue. This paper approaches the topic with two primary inquiries. First, I examine whether venture capital syndication

20 11 increases a firm s ability to time the IPO market. Keuschnigg (2004) finds that venture capitalists not only finance, but also advise and bring value to portfolio firms. Barry, et al. (1990) further suggest that venture capitalists specialize their investments in firms to provide intensive monitoring, and serve on the board of portfolios companies. If venture capital firms are providing these types of non-pecuniary benefits to the firms they invest in, one would expect that an increased level of venture capital syndication would lead to an increased ability to time the IPO market. As a second inquiry, I examine the possible benefits from venture capital syndication, in terms of the pricing of the offering. I test the IPO pricing in three separate ways. First, I explore the impact of VC syndication on initial returns. A number of benefits have been suggested in the literature providing venture capital firms with an incentive to underprice of equity offerings. (Lerner (1994b)). The initial return adjusts the price of the stock to reflect what the value placed on it by the secondary market. If VC syndication allows a firm to price it s offering more efficiently, one would expect this to be reflected in initial returns. Additionally, the extent of VC syndication may impact investor optimism related to the stock on the first day of public trading. This theory is consistent with the literature which has suggested that investor sentiment plays a significant role in initial public offerings, both during the process of allocating the share, as well as after they become public. (Ljungqvist, Nanda, and Singh (2006) and Lowry (2003)). Additionally, I propose that larger syndication of the venture-backing leads to additional analyst coverage and other benefits of IPO exposure. This hypothesis is consistent with the literature that issuing firms seek analyst coverage related to their IPOs, and may even purchase coverage with IPO underpricing. In this regard, Cliff and

21 12 Denis (2005) find a positive relationship between analysis coverage as well as the presence of an all-star analyst on the research staff of the lead underwriter, and IPO underpricing. The authors further argue that underpricing is, in part, compensation for expected post-ipo analysis coverage from highly ranked analysis. I also test how the primary market views the stock, with respect to VC syndication. To examine this issue, I use the extent to which the stock sold, in the primary market, above the mid-point of its initial SEC filing range, This pre-ipo gain/loss is measured as a percentage of the mid-point of the initial filing range, and provides an indication of the primary market s view of the offering. As a final inquiry related to VC syndication, I explore the impact of such syndication on the initial IPO filing price range. One would expect that the breadth of such range would be related to the uncertainty surrounding the offering. Therefore, venture capital syndication, and the extent of such syndication may play a role in the size of the initial public offering price range. 1.3 Data and Sample Selection In this section I describe the sample selection process, and descriptive statistics of the initial public offerings and venture capital firms in the sample. From ThompsonOne s Private Equity Database, I initially collect all IPOs available which occurred during the period from 1980 through Such information includes IPO characteristic information including the company name, company nation, SIC code, date of IPO, offering proceeds, offering price, first day closing price, lead underwriter, and venture capital firm names and characteristics. I also collect data related to two measures of IPO

22 market hotness from Jay Ritter s website: 1 13 Monthly average first-day percentage return 2 and the monthly percentage of IPOs that priced above the midpoint of the original filing price. Both measures are used in independent regressions as a measure of market hotness. Finally, I collect data related to the Underwriter Prestige Ranking, based on the model of underwriter ranking of Carter and Manaster (1990) and also provided on Jay Ritter s website. From the initial data set I exclude all IPOs that do not meet certain criteria, as well as those for which full information is not available. Specifically, based on conventional finance-related research practice, I exclude all IPOs of less than $1,500,000, offerings priced below $5.00 per share, and the offerings of financial firms. Additionally, as all data is not available prior to 1980 or since the close of 2011, all IPOs prior to 1980 and those in 2012 are also excluded from the IPO sample. The selection process yields a sample consisting of 3,014 IPOs from 34 countries. 3 All tests are conducted on two subsets of the IPO sample. First, multivariate regressions are performed on the sample including all U.S. initial public offerings. Second, a subset of the data including only the countries with ten or more IPOs during the sample period is used for the multivariate regressions. 4 Baseline results are reported based on the United States IPOs only, which includes 2,715 initial public offerings. The data includes 1,934 IPOs that were backed by syndicated venture capitalists, and 781 offerings backed by a single venture capital firm. 1 Jay Ritter s website is located at: 2 This measure of market hotness dictates that an IPO is considered to have taken place during a hot issue market period if it occurred in a month in which the average first-day return is greater than the median first-day return of the sample. 3 Table 1 provides the frequency distribution of the IPO sample among the different countries in the initial data. 4 Countries with ten or more IPOs include Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United States.

23 1.4 Empirical Analysis Descriptive statistics of initial public offerings and venture capital firms Table 1 provides the frequency distribution of the IPO sample among the 34 countries in the initial data of 3,014 IPOs from 1980 through As discussed above, all tests were conducted on two subsets of the IPO data: The entire set of data including only the IPOs in the United States, as well as the subset of the data including the U.S. IPOs and those from countries with ten or more IPOs during the sample period. Countries with 10 or more IPOs include Canada, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Table 2 outlines the frequency distribution of U.S. IPOs from 1980 through 2011, by year, as well as the proportion of IPOs that were backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms compared to IPOs that were backed by a single venture capital firm. During the sample period 1,934 IPOs were syndicate-backed, while 781 involved a single venture capital firm. The percentage of the total number of IPOs for each category is also reported for each year. I use the two-digit SIC code to group IPO companies into industry categories. Table 3 provides the SIC Classifications and corresponding descriptions for the IPO companies. 5 Table 4 provides an overview of the characteristics of the sample of initial public offerings. The statistics are reported for the entire United States sample, as well as split 5 There are no IPO codes starting with 6 as, following convention, I have excluded financial firms from the sample.

24 TABLE 1: Frequency distribution of IPO sample by country 15 Observations are IPOs from 1980 through 2011 from 34 countries. I exclude IPOs of less than $1,500,000, offerings below $5.00 per share, and the offerings of financial firms. Data is collected from ThompsonOne s Private Equity Database. Country Frequency Percent Argentina % Australia % Austria % Bahamas % Belgium % Bermuda % Brazil % Canada % China % France % Georgia % Germany % Greece % India % Ireland % Israel % Italy % Japan % Mexico % Netherlands % Philippines % Poland % Russia % South Africa % South Korea % Spain % Sweden % Switzerland % Turkey % United Kingdom % United States % Total 3014

25 TABLE 2: Frequency distribution of U.S. IPOs by year 16 Yearly volume and percentage of the total sample of U.S. IPOs from 1980 through Syndicated volume and percentage report the number of IPOs each year that were backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms, and the corresponding percentage relative to the total for a given year. Non-Syndicated volume and percentage report the number and percentage of IPOs that involved a single venture capital firm in the given year. Total number of IPOs for each category are also reported. Total IPOs Syndicated IPOs Non-Syndicated IPOs Year Number Percent of Total by Year Number Percent of Total Number Percent of Total % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % Total

26 17 among the syndicate-backed IPOs, and offerings that involve a single venture capital firm. Average Initial Return is computed over the entire sample period, as (vt OP)/OP, where vt is the closing bid price on the first day of public trading, and OP is the offering price of the initial public offering, following convention established in Beatty and Ritter (1986). Table 4 reports average offering price, average offering proceeds, average initial return, and average age of issuing firm. With respect to underwriters and venture capitalists involved in each IPO Table 4 provides the average underwriter ranking, as well as the average number of VCs in each syndicate. On average 6 syndicated venture capital firms participated in the IPOs that were syndicate-backed. Finally, average monthly first-day returns is based on the Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) measure of IPO issue market hotness. Average monthly percentage priced above the midpoint is based on the Ritter measure of IPO issue market hotness (Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1994). Descriptive statistics related to the venture capital firms are reported in Table 5. I again separate the sample into two categories reporting the descriptive statistics for IPOs that were backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms, and initial public offerings that were backed by a single venture capital firm. The venture capital firms involved in the IPO transactions are matched with characteristics data from ThompsonOne s Private Equity Database related to a database of 7,452 venture capital firm in existence from 1980 through As reported in Table 5, based on the venture capital firms represented in the sample of initial public offerings, the average age of the venture firm is 16.64, compared to and for the venture capital firms among the syndicated IPOs, and non-

27 TABLE 3: Frequency distribution of U.S. sample IPOs by industry 18 Observations are U.S. IPOs from 1980 through 2011 from 34 countries. I exclude IPOs of less than $1,500,000, offerings below $5.00 per share, and the offerings of financial firms. Data is collected from ThompsonOne s Private Equity Database. Industry Categories Number Percentage Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing % Mining % Construction % Manufacturing % Transportation, Communications & Utility % Wholesale Trade % Retail Trade % Services % Public Administration % Total 2715

28 TABLE 4: Descriptive statistics for sample of IPOs 19 Descriptive statistics for sample of United States IPOs from 1980 through I separate the sample into two categories reporting the descriptive statistics for IPOs that were backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms and IPOs that were backed by a single venture capital firm. Average Initial Return is computed over the entire sample period, as (vt OP)/OP, where vt is the closing bid price on the first day of public trading, and OP is the offering price of the initial public offering, following convention established in Beatty and Ritter (1986). Underwriter Prestige Ranking is based on the model of underwriter ranking of Carter and Manaster (1990) and provided on Jay Ritter s website ( Average monthly 1st-day returns is based on the Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) measure of IPO issue market hotness. Average monthly percentage priced above the midpoint is based on the Ritter measure of IPO issue market hotness (Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1994). Note that the average offering price above midpoint, and average price range, as a percentage of the midpoint are based on a sample of 1772 U.S. offerings, and 115 offerings from countries with more than 10 IPOs. All IPOs Syndicated IPOs Non-Syndicated IPOs Number of IPOs Average Initial Return Average Offering Price ($) $13.85 $12.45 $13.10 Average Offering Proceeds ($ Millions) $79.24 $78.54 $80.82 Average Age of Issuing Firm at IPO (Years) Average Number of VCs in Syndicate Average Offering Price Above Midpoint Average Price Range as a Percentage of Midpoint Average Monthly 1st Day Returns (Percent) Average Monthly % Priced Above Midpoint (Percent)

29 20 syndicated IPOs, respectively. The average number of IPOs the venture capital firms participated in prior to the instant offering, is for all IPOs, for syndicated IPOs, and for non-syndicate-back IPOs. Average proceeds are also very similar for the 3 groups at $802 million, $807 million, and $810, respectively. The proceeds of offerings in which the VCs have participated on average during the 3-year period prior to the instant IPOs are $406 million for all IPOs, $402 million for syndicated-ipos, and $471 million for non-syndicated IPOs. The number of initial public offerings in which the VCs have participated in, on average, during the 3-year period prior to the instant initial public offerings were 7.48 for all IPOs, 6.82 for syndicated-ipos, and 7.74 for nonsyndicated IPOs. Finally, average time to exit for the venture capital firms that participated in all IPOs is 4.38 years. With respect to venture capital syndicate-based offerings, the average time to exit is 4.78 year, compared to 3.14 years for non-syndicatebacked IPOs. To control for differences in the experience and reputation among the venture capital firms involved in the equity offerings, I use a VC Rank variable. This variable is computed based on the sample of IPOs, and for robustness is calculated using a number of possible measures of VC quality. In particular, I initially calculate a number of different measures of VC Rank for both the non-syndicated IPOs, as well as the syndicated initial public offerings, including average age of the VCs involved in the IPO, average number of previous IPOs among the VCs in the instant IPO, average amount of IPO proceeds from previous offerings among the VCs in the instant IPO, average number of IPOs during the previous 3-year rolling period among the VCs in the instant IPO, and average amount of IPO proceeds from previous offerings that occurred during the

30 TABLE 5: Descriptive statistics for venture capital firms 21 Descriptive statistics for venture capital firms in sample of United States IPOs from 1980 through I separate the sample into two categories reporting the descriptive statistics for IPOs that were backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms and IPOs that were backed by a single venture capital firm. All statistics are reported as the average. All IPOS Syndicated IPOS Non-Syndicated IPOs Age of VC Syndicate (Average) Number of Prior IPOs for Syndicate (Average) Proceeds from Prior IPOs for Syndicate (Average $ Million) $802 $807 $810 Proceeds for Syndicate (Average, 3-Year Rolling) $406 $402 $471 Number of IPOs for Syndicate (Average, 3-Year Rolling) Time to VC Exit (Average Years) 4 5 3

31 22 previous 3-year rolling period among the VCs in the instant IPO. 6 The 3-year rolling average number of IPOs is used as the primary measure of venture capital firm quality, expertise, and reputation in the multivariate regressions Impact of Venture Capital Syndication on IPO Market Timing As a first analysis of this paper, I study the relationship between venture capital syndication and a firm s ability to efficiently time the market. I first split the sample into two groups: IPOs with a syndication of venture capital firms, and IPOs in which only a single venture capitalist is involved. Among the literature, Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975) first provided the foundational definition of a hot issues market, defined as a month in which the average initial return is above the median month s average first-day return. According to convention, initial return is defined as the percentage first-day return, measured from the offer price to the closing market price (Ritter (2011)). Based on the above definition of a hot IPO market, there is a significant differential in this paper s sample of syndicated firms apparent ability to time the hot issue market. As can be seen in Table 4, using the measure of monthly average first-day returns, syndicated offerings occurred during months when the average initial return is 25.93%. This is in comparison to 19.56% for non-syndicated IPOs. A second measure of initial public offering market hotness, developed in the literature, is the percentage of IPOs that priced above the midpoint of the original file price range (Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1994)). The original file range is the offering price range in the original Securities and Exchange Commission registration. Shortly 6 VC Ranks are computed as averages taking the number of VCs in each offering into account. For example, to compute the average age of the VCs involved in a particular offering, the ages, at the time of the instant IPO, of all VCs that participated in the offering are computed based on the founding date of the VC firms, and then averaged relative to the number of VC firms participating.

32 23 before the actual offering, the issuer and underwriter set a final offering price. This measure suggests that the percentage of firms that ultimately price their offering above the midpoint of the registered range is an indication of how hot the IPO market is at that time. Based on data obtained from Jay Ritter s website, this market hotness measure is included as a variable to check the efficiency of IPO market timing. Using this measure of initial public offering market hotness, the average monthly percentage of IPOs that priced above the midpoint is 46.29%. Syndicate-backed IPOs went public during months when the average percentage of all IPOs that month that priced above their midpoint is 47.15%. This is contrasted with the result of 43.94% for non-syndicate-backed initial public offerings. The results with respect to this issue suggest a substantial difference in a firm s ability to time the IPO market, based on whether the offering was backed by a syndicate of venture capital firms. Based on both of the conventional measures of market timing, the IPOs that were syndicated present results that suggest they more successfully timed the market for IPOs. To further examine the relationship between venture capital syndication and market timing, I use multivariate regression models of the two primary market timing measures. The multivariate regression model is as follows: Market Hotness t = α + β 1 Syndication i + β 2 x Amount of Offering i + β 3 Age of Firm i + β 4 Underwriter Rank i + β 5 Venture Capital Rank i + β 6 NASDAQ Return t-1 + ε i

33 24 where, Market Hotness t denotes the specific IPO market hotness measure used in the particular regression: Monthly average first-day returns measure and Monthly average percentage that priced above the midpoint filing range. Results for each are delineated accordingly. Syndication i denotes either a dummy variable indicating whether the venture capital was syndicated, or the number of venture capital firms participating in the initial public offering, depending on the model. In the models with a Syndication dummy variable zero represents those offering that did not involve syndicated venture capital, and one denotes those offerings with more than one venture capitalist involved. Amount of Offering i is the natural log of the amount of the initial public offering. Since it has been found that initial returns can be affected by the size of the offering (Ritter 1984), this variable controls for this effect. Age of Firm i is the age of the issuing company at the time of the IPO. Since the age of a firm can affect the information asymmetry associated with the company, this variable allows for this fact in the model. Underwriter Rank i is the rank of the lead underwriter handling the initial public offering. Using the method outlined by Carter and Manaster (1990) to determine the rank of underwriters on the basis of prestige, I use this variable to control for the effect of the quality of the underwriter on the results. Venture Capital Rank i is the average number of IPOs in which the VCs in the offering were involved in the previous 3-year period. Five independent measures of venture capital expertise were tested, and the average, rolling, number of initial public offerings that the venture capital firms were involved in during the 3-year period prior to each IPO is used throughout this study. NASDAQ Return t-1 denotes the NASDAQ composite return for the quarter prior to the instant offering.

34 25 Table 6 reports the results related to the regressions of Market Hotness on Syndication, as well as the other variables. I find a positive relation between whether an initial public offering is syndicated and the hotness of the market at the time of the offering. Using both measures of market hotness, in Models 1 and 3, in the regression on United States firms, the coefficients are positive and significant at the 1% level. More particularly, Model 1, which presents the results using the average monthly initial returns as the measure of market hotness, indicates that there is a 5% increase in such monthly average when the firm is syndicated. When using the percentage of firms that priced above the midpoint of their offering range, the results indicate a 2.4% difference. The results with respect to the level of VC syndication also indicate that there is a positive relationship between the level of syndication and the ability of the firm to time the IPO market. When testing the United States offerings using the average monthly initial returns as the measure of market hotness, I find a positive and significant relationship between such measure and the level of VC syndication, as can be seen in Model 2. The results with respect to Model 4, which using the percentage of firms that priced above the midpoint provide similar results. In reviewing the results related to the regressions of the sample of offerings from all countries with more than 10 IPOs, the results indicate that, among these offerings, there is a positive, and significant relationship between initial public offering market timing and both the syndication dummy variable and (Models 1 and 3), as well as the level of venture capital syndication (Models 2 and 4).

35 TABLE 6: Regressions of market hotness on venture capital syndication and control variables 26 This table reports the multivariate regressions for the sample of IPOs from 1980 through I exclude IPOs of less than $1,500,000, offerings below $5.00 per share, and the offerings of financial firms. The results are presented for regressions of U.S. IPOs only, as well as those for all countries with 10 or more initial public offerings during the sample period. The dependent variable is each of the two measures of market timing, Market Hotness, depending on the Model. The dependent variable for Models 1 and 2 is average monthly 1st day returns, based on Ibbotson and Jaffee (1975). The dependent variable for Models 3 and 4 is the monthly % of IPOs that priced above the midpoint of their initial filing range, based on Ibbotson, Sindelar, and Ritter (1994). Syndication Dummy is a dummy variable indicating whether the venture capital was syndicated. Zero represents those offering that did not involve syndicated venture capital, and one denotes those offerings with more than one venture capitalist involved. Syndication Level denotes the number of participating venture capital firms in the IPO syndication. Amount of Offering is the natural log of the amount of the initial public offering. Age of Firm is the age of the issuing company at the time of the IPO. Underwriter Rank is the rank of the lead underwriter handling the initial public offering, using the method outlined by Carter and Manaster (1990). Venture Capital Rank is the average number of IPOs in which the VCs in the offering were involved in the previous 3-year period. NASDAQ Return denotes the NASDAQ composite return for the quarter prior to the instant offering. Parameter estimates are presented with t-statistics below. * indicates significance at the 10% level, ** at the 5% level, and *** at the 1% level.